The Tomten

The old farm lies fast asleep and everyone inside the house is sleeping too. The farm is deep in the middle of the forest. Once upon a time someone came here, cut down trees, built a homestead and farmed the land.

No one knows who. The stars are shining in the sky tonight. The snow lies white all around. The frost is cruel. On such a night people creep into their small houses, wrap themselves up and bank the fire on the hearth.

Here is a lonely old farm where everybody is sleeping. All but one. The Tumpton is awake. He lives in a corner of the hayloft and comes out at night when human beings are asleep. He is an old, old Tonton who has seen the snow of many hundreds of winters.

No one knows when he came to the farm. No one has ever seen him, but they know he is there. Sometimes when they wake up they see the prints of his feet in the snow, but no one has seen the Tonton.

On small, silent feet the Tonton moves about in the moonlight. He peeps into the cow shed and stable, storehouse and tall shed. He goes between the buildings making tracks in the snow. The Tonton first goes to the cow shed.

The cows are dreaming that summer is here and they are grazing in the fields. The Tonton talks to them in Tonton language. A silent little language the cows can understand. come and winters go, summers come and summers go. Soon you will graze in the fields. The moon is shining into the stable. There stands Sam, the Shire Horse, thinking. Perhaps he